Bringing a knife to a gunfight

Yesterday (!) Castles were in action in, of all things, the Alexander Cup - the Surrey League's premier knockout competition, over 10 boards with no grading limit. We've entered it sporadically over the years, but never won a match. If we could ever get everyone linked to the club in the same room then we'd have a chance, but that's just a dream now. Young people just aren't interested in weeknight chess - and that includes the author.

 Still, it was miserable luck to draw Guildford away in the first round, since they're the other side of Surrey to us, and our availability was predictably poor. Even though board 5 was the lowest I've been for 4 years, we tailed off quickly and only had 7 players, one of whom didn't make it to the venue. So we started 4-0 down, and outgraded 190-217, 176-201, 176-197, Def-183, 167-178, e137-171, 125-166, Def, Def, Def. Thankfully Liverpool were playing Manchester United at the same time, so we got offered a draw after 5 moves on board 2. At least it wouldn't be a whitewash! I was on board 5 against Robert Lydiard (178), which meant a rare league encounter with someone my own age - a former 197 who stopped for a while at university but has recently come back to chess. Unfortunately the opening was one that I don't face rarely enough, and I drifted into a feeble defeat:

We were vanquished 1½-8½, WDLLLLLLLL (Afterwards I proposed that we switch to two-board matches in future.) Only to be expected, but it's still depressing. The club exists to give juniors games, but preferably competitive ones - that's why our favourite competition is the Lauder Trophy, which is only six boards and has a team grading limit. That said, ten boards is tough for everyone these days - club chess in this part of this world is in a bad way, that's for sure.

Lydiard showed his former strength in this game, I'd like to think - he certainly knew the opening system a lot better than I did and assessed the position with rook against two pieces far more realistically. 12... Nxe4? was the only blot of the copybook. But even so, I just didn't turn up to this game. I could almost see it coming before the game even started. Black's system looks so timid, so desperate to avoid anything sharp, but I can't even get playable positions against it! I did not bring the necessary understanding to this game, but then you only gain it by analysing. I increasingly see that ...exd4 is the move in the Hanham - the one that has to be checked on every turn. 11. Ba2?! felt wrong and was wrong; just as in the first round of the Major Open, I was strangely reticent about completing development. The Bxf7+ idea was good, but that was just an accident since I didn't even see 14. Qh5+, much less analyse it. 15. Ne6? is surrender, and the second half of the game is best forgotten about. Woeful stuff all round, especially after playing relatively well against Ahluwalia and Pickersgill earlier this month.

At least the next game isn't far away, and it's another one for Castles - a Lauder Trophy match on Thursday. We've won matches in this one (and the trophy itself, twice) so fingers crossed...